documenta 14 Takes Over Both Athens and Kassel in 2017

Eli Anapur is a pseudonym of Biljana Puric. A staff writer and editor at Widewalls, Biljana holds Master’s Degrees in Film Aesthetics from the University of Oxford, and Gender Studies from the Central European University. She has published academic articles as well as art and film reviews and criticism in New Eastern Europe, ARTMargins, the Journal of Curatorial Studies, and Short Film Studies; she has also contributed illustrations for Argus Magazine.

For more than half a century since the first documenta art exhibition, this trailblazing show invites some of the most prestigious names on contemporary art scene to exhibit their works on a carefully curated stage. The first documenta was a retrospective of works from artistic movements that marked the beginning of the 20th century such as Futurism, Cubism, and Fauvism, while the following editions were sculptured according to ideas and concepts of their artistic directors. The first edition was also marked by 130,000 visitors who came to Kassel to see the exhibition. This year’s documenta 14 will be held at Kassel and Athens, and both locations expect their visitors with an impressive program. We focus on and point out some of its the concepts and highlights.

Angelo Plessas – The Noospheric Society 2016

Documenta Art Exhibition – Concepts

Known for its innovative approach to art scene and standard-setting exhibition concepts, documenta became over the years not just an art event that charts the current happenings, but the one that also disturbs the societal notions about art. For documenta 14, the underlining and guiding curatorial choices come from thinking on the conditions of displacement, possession, dispossession, debt, and relations between capital, language, nature, and power. Covering a broad and complex array of problems and topics, documenta 14 builds its theoretical base through writings by some of the most prominent authors and creatives in these fields, published in the South as a State of Mind magazine.

Founded in Athens in 2012, South is far from being just a discursive lens for the exhibition. It is actually a place of research, art and literature that parallels the documenta 14, helping it frame its concerns and aims. Four special issues have been published biannually so far, preceding the opening of the show in Athens and Kassel, and can be read here.

Torture and Freedom Tour of Athens, opening of the Public Programs of documenta 14 at Parko Eleftherias, photo by Stathis Mamalakis

Highlights of the 14th Edition

The first artwork that will be created for the show is The Parthenon of Books by Marta Minujín. The artist is known for her previous work under the same title, created in 1983, comprising of an installation created from banned books from all over the world. This time, a public call has been sent out, asking for book donations, while the installation is planned to be set up in June in Kassel. Envisioned to be a true-to-scale replica of the Acropolis temple in Athens, it will symbolize a resistance to oppressive systems of control.

More of the pressing issues are explored in a series of experimental documentary and fiction films that are broadcasted by Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), and organized by documenta 14. The films are shown every Monday midnight, starting on December 19, 2016 and lasting until September 18, 2017. The films are selected not just because of the subjects they cover, but also because of their novel filmic form.

Finally, documenta 14 is also marked by a rich schedule of public events, the Parliament of Bodies, that took place from October 2016 to February 2017 in Athens.

Documenta 14 at Kassel and Athens Venues

The initial documenta in 1955 was a brainchild of Arlond Bode, and academic professor who wished to reconnect Germany and its artistic scene with the rest of the world after World War II. The show has grown over the years, currently being one of the most anticipated art events in Europe. After the initial success of the first documenta, the exhibition cycle has been established, and the exhibitions have been organized by a limited liability company with the city of Kassel and State of Hesse as shareholders.

documenta 14 takes place in Athens, from April 8 – July 16, and in Kassel, Jun 10 – September 17, 2017.